Running toy with a pivotal undercarriage mechanism

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, a running toy is provided having a rear-end portion of a fore undercarriage with front wheels pivotally coupled with a fore-end portion of a rear undercarriage with rear wheels. Further, a fore toy body is attached to the fore undercarriage, and a rear toy body is attached to the rear undercarriage, where the fore toy body and rear toy body are sustained such that these car bodies move parallel toward or away from each other, and where a rear-wheel driving mechanism for driving at least either the front wheels or the rear wheels is disclosed herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a running toy having front and rearwheels, and in particular, to a running toy which can provide two toystyles including a high-floor pick-up style wherein the toy body is keptbent and a low-floor buggy style wherein the toy body is stretched.

BACKGROUND ART

Conventionally, as one example of running toy of this kind, there isdisclosed a running toy in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H7-313738 whichwas filed by the present applicant. This running toy is constructed suchthat a toy body portion on the affront wheel side and a toy body portionon the rear wheel side are bendable to move close to the rear wheelswith the front and rear wheels being kept faced to each other, and thatthe front and rear wheels can be individually driven and controlledusing a couple of drive motors so as to enable the running toy toperform, in the steering operation of the running toy, a sharp right orleft turn. As a result, it is possible for the running toy in theoff-road driving to push aside or ride over a relatively large obstacleand the like by bending the toy body, or to avoid the obstacle bysharply turning the toy body, thereby enabling smooth driving of therunning toy.

Certainly, the aforementioned prior art has an advantage of enabling therunning toy to take various driving forms, such as forward movement,rearward movement, right and left sharp turns, etc. However, the runningtoy has a problem that it precludes from taking various driving forms byautomatically turning its construction into various toy styles, andhence, the running toy of the prior art is not able to drive ininteresting various toy styles.

The present invention has been made to solve the aforementioned problem,and therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide arunning toy which can offer two toy styles, i.e. a high-floor pick-upstyle and a low-floor buggy style wherein the toy body is stretched,thereby making it possible to perform a variety of interesting driving,such as an off-road driving or a high speed driving.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The running toy according to the present invention is characterized inthat a rear-end portion of a fore undercarriage with front wheels ispivotally coupled, via an undercarriage bending means, with a fore-endportion of a rear undercarriage with rear wheels, that a fore toy bodyis attached to the fore undercarriage and a rear toy body is attached tothe rear undercarriage, that the fore toy body and rear toy body aresustained by a sustaining means such that these car bodies move paralleltoward or away from each other, and that a rear-wheel driving means fordriving at least either the front wheels or the rear wheels is providedtherein.

Preferably, the front wheels are supported by a front wheel-supportingundercarriage which is pivotally supported by the fore undercarriage,and a posture adjusting means is interposed between the foreundercarriage and the front wheel-supporting undercarriage. This postureadjusting means comprises an arm holder interlocked with theundercarriage bending means, an arm holder fixed to the frontwheel-supporting undercarriage, and an arm linking these two arm holdersto each other, and is provided with a buffering device. It is alsopreferable that this running toy comes under the control of a radiocontroller.

According to this running toy constructed as described above, when theundercarriage bending means is actuated to bend the undercarriage of therunning toy, the running toy can be turned its construction into ahigh-floor pick-up style. On the other hand, when the undercarriagebending means is actuated to stretch the undercarriage of the runningtoy, the running toy can be turned its construction into a low-floorbuggy style. Namely, the change in the construction into two ways allowsa variety of interesting driving.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1(a) is a schematic perspective view of running toy in a stretchedstate according to one embodiment of the present invention, and

FIG. 1(b) is a schematic perspective view of running toy in a bentstate;

FIG. 2 is a side view of running toy in a stretched state;

FIG. 3 is a side view of running toy in a bent state;

FIG. 4 is a partially taken plan view of running toy in a stretchedstate, wherein the toy body portion thereof is omitted;

FIG. 5 is a partially taken side view of running toy in a stretchedstate, wherein the toy body portion thereof is omitted;

FIG. 6 is a partially taken side view of running toy in a bent state,wherein the toy body portion thereof is omitted;

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing the details of theundercarriage bending means;

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing the array of wheels shown inFIG. 7;

FIG. 9 shows a buffering device, wherein (a) is a front view, (b) is across-sectional view taken along the line A—A, (c) is a cross-sectionalview taken along the line B—B in (b), and (d) is a cross-sectional viewillustrating the operation of the device shown in (c);

FIG. 10(a) is a front view of a linking arm, and (b) is a front viewillustrating the operation of the device shown in (a);

FIG. 11 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along the line C—C inFIG. 2; and

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an electric circuit of the running toy.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The embodiments of the running toy according to the present inventionwill be explained with reference to the attached drawings. FIG. 1 is aschematic perspective view of a running toy according to one embodimentof the present invention, wherein (a) is a schematic perspective view ofrunning toy in a stretched state, and (b) is a schematic perspectiveview of running toy in a bent state; FIG. 2 is a side view of runningtoy in a stretched state; FIG. 3 is a side view of running toy in a bentstate; FIG. 4 is a partially taken plan view of running toy in astretched state, wherein the toy body portion thereof is omitted; FIG. 5is a partially taken side view of running toy in a stretched state,wherein the toy body portion thereof is omitted; FIG. 6 is a partiallytaken side view of running toy in a bent state, wherein the toy bodyportion thereof is omitted; FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing thedetails of the undercarriage bending means; FIG. 8 is a cross-sectionalview showing the array of wheels shown in FIG. 7; FIG. 9 shows abuffering device, wherein (a) is a front view, (b) is a cross-sectionalview taken along the line A—A, (c) is a cross-sectional view taken alongthe line B—B in (b), and (d) is a cross-sectional view illustrating theoperation of the device shown in (c); FIG. 10(a) is a front view of alinking arm, and (b) is a front view illustrating the operation of thedevice shown in (a); FIG. 11 is an enlarged cross-sectional view takenalong the line C—C in FIG. 2; and FIG. 12 is a block diagram of anelectric circuit of the running toy.

As shown in FIG. 1, the running toy 10 according to the presentinvention can give two toy styles, i.e. a toy style 10A in a stretchedstate as shown in (a) and a toy style 10B in a bent state as shown in(b). As shown in FIGS. 1 to 6 (in particular, FIG. 4), the undercarriage15 comprises a front wheel-supporting undercarriage 20, afore-undercarriage 30 pivotally supporting the front wheel-supportingundercarriage 20, a rear-undercarriage 50 is pivotally coupled via thefore-end thereof with the rear-end of the fore-undercarriage 30, and atoy body bending means 35 for bending the joint portion between thefore-undercarriage 30 and the rear-undercarriage 50. Further, theundercarriage 15 is provided with a couple of posture adjusting means 60which are interlocked to the toy body bending means 35 for adjusting theposture of the front wheel-supporting undercarriage 20. The postureadjusting means 60 are disposed respectively at the opposite innersidewalls (only one sidewall is shown) of a fore-undercarriage case 31.

The front wheel-supporting undercarriage 20 is designed to hold thefront wheels 24 through suspension devices 23, each comprising a lowerarm 21 and a spring 22, and pivotally sustained via a shaft 20 a by thefore-undercarriage 30. The front wheels 24 are steerable through tierods 26 as they are actuated by a steering means 25 which is housedinside the front wheel-supporting undercarriage 20. A front bumper 27 isattached in front of the front wheel-supporting undercarriage 20.

The fore-undercarriage 30 is provided with the toy body bending means 35which is disposed inside the rear end portion of the undercarriage case31. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the toy body bending means 35 isconstituted by a motor 36, a pinion 36 a forcibly fixed to the shaft ofmotor 36, a first wheel 37 engaged with the pinion 36 a, a second wheel38 engaged with the first wheel 37, a third wheel 39 engaged with thesecond wheel 38, a fourth wheel 41 having a clutch mechanism 40 which isengaged with the third wheel 39, a fifth wheel 42 engaged with thefourth wheel 41, a sixth wheel 43 engaged with the fifth wheel 42, and adriving wheel 45 engaged with the sixth wheel 43 and fixed to a drivingshaft 44. A pair of hexagonal shafts 44 a are forcibly fixed to both endportions of the driving shaft 44, respectively.

The clutch mechanism 40 is designed to pushingly move the coupling gearportion interposed between the large gear wheel and small gear wheel ofthe fourth wheel 41 in the axial direction by means of a clutch spring40 a so as to couple these wheels, and also to release these wheels whenan excessive torque is imposed thereon. The fore-end portion of therear-undercarriage 50 is pivotally coupled with the hexagonal shafts 44a of the driving shaft 44 which are positioned at the rear end portionof the fore-undercarriage 30. Further, an arm holder 61 disposed on thedriving side of the posture-adjusting means 60 is attached to each ofthe hexagonal shafts 44 a of the driving shaft 44.

The rear-undercarriage 50 is used for housing a wire circuit substrate52 including a radio controller 90 (to be explained hereinafter) andpower source (not shown) inside the undercarriage case 51 and is coupledwith the hexagonal shafts 44 a of the driving shaft 44 of the toy bodybending means 35. This enables both fore-undercarriage 30 andrear-undercarriage 50 to pivotally move about the driving shaft 44 so asto bent the undercarriages 30 and 50. To this rear-undercarriage 50 isfixed a rear wheel driving means 54 for actuating the rear wheels 53.This rear wheel driving means 54 can be driven by a motor 55, and theright and left rear wheels 53 are linked to each other through a knowndifferential mechanism.

A tail wing 56 is pivotally secured to the rear-undercarriage 50 about ashaft 56 a and is urged in the backward direction by means of a spring57 but can be pivoted in the forward direction resisting against theurging force of the spring 57. The tail wing 56 is protruded outside therear toy body through a through-hole (not shown) of the rear toy body asdescribed hereinafter. However, when the undercarriage 15 is turned intoa bent state, most of the tail wing 56 can be housed inside the rear toybody.

As shown in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6, the posture-adjusting means 60 of thefront wheel-supporting undercarriage 20 is constituted by a driving armholder 61 having a linking shaft 61 a and is engaged with the hexagonalshafts 44 a of the driving shaft 44 of the toy body bending means 35,and a driven side arm holder 62 having a linking shaft 62 a and fixedvia a buffering device (to be explained hereinafter) to the frontwheel-supporting undercarriage 20, and an arm 63 coupled with bothcoupling shaft portions of these arm holders. The linking shafts 61 aand 62 a are respectively fixed to the external of these arm holders 61and 62 with leaving a predetermined space away from the rotationalcenter of each arm holder. When both fore-undercarriage 30 andrear-undercarriage 50 are bent relative to each other by means of thetoy body bending means 35, the front wheel-supporting undercarriage 20rotationally moves by means of the arm 63, which adjusts the posture ofthe front wheel-supporting undercarriage 20.

The driven side arm holder 62 of the posture-adjusting means 60 isprovided with a buffering device 70. As shown in FIG. 9, this bufferingdevice 70 comprises a stationary plate 72 which is irrotationallyengaged on the hexagonal shaft 20 b of stationary shaft 20 a fixed tothe front wheel-supporting undercarriage 20, and a rotation-regulatingprotrusion 73 is projected from this stationary plate 72 to engage withan engaging groove 63 of the driven side arm holder 62, which regulatesthe range of rotation.

A circumferential protrusion 64 is projected from the rear surface ofthe driven side arm holder 62, and another circumferential protrusion 74is projected from the top surface of the stationary plate 72 to face andcontact with the circumferential protrusion 64. A buffering spring 75 isalso mounted to elastically contact with one end face of each of theseprotrusions 64 and 74. The rotation-regulating protrusion 73 of thestationary plate 72 is provided at the outer peripheral center thereofwith a projection 73 a which is adapted to be engaged with a recess 63 aformed on the inner peripheral wall of the engaging groove 63 of the armholder 62. This enables the arm holder 62 to be click-stopped by thestationary plate 72. The stationary plate 72 is engaged around thestationary shaft 20 a, while idly engaging the driven side arm holder 62around the distal columnar portion 20 c of the stationary shaft 20 a,and these stationary plate 72 and arm holder 62 are coupled with eachother by means of a tapping screw 76.

On the side portion of the fore undercarriage 30, there is disposed aswitching mechanism 65 which is interlocked with the arm 63 constitutingthe posture-adjusting means 60. As shown in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6, thisswitching mechanism 65 is constructed such that when the arm 63 is movedup and down as it is actuated by the driving side arm holder 62, theswitch member 66 moves up and down in company with the movement of thearm 63, thereby turning the switch 67 ON or OFF to electrically regulatethe range of the bending angle of toy body bending means 35. The switch67 adopts a three-terminal structure, it can be closed when the switchmember 66 is positioned top or bottom.

As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the toy body 80 is constituted by a foretoy body 81, a rear toy body 82 and a roof portion 83, and they arecoupled, as shown in FIG. 11, such that an upper portion of the couplingarm 84 is engaged with an engaging groove 82 a formed in the rear toybody 82, and likewise, an upper portion of the coupling arm 84 isengaged with an engaging groove formed in the fore toy body 81, therebyenabling them to be expanded in the horizontal direction.

The fore toy body 81 is coupled by means of a locking screw 85 with thefore undercarriage 30, the rear toy body 82 is coupled by means of alocking screw 86 with the rear undercarriage 50, and the coupling arm 84is prevented from falling by means of the projected portions 31 a and 51a, to which the fore toy body 81 and the rear toy body 82 are fastenedby locking screws 85 and 86. Thus, the fore toy body 81 and the rear toybody 82 are sustained in a movable manner relative to and parallel witheach other by means of a sustaining means made of the engaging grooveand the coupling arm 84. The roof portion 83 is pivotally coupled via asupporting shaft 83 a with an upper portion of the bending portion ofundercarriage case of the fore undercarriage 30, and is urged clockwiseby means of a spring 83 b.

The coupling arm 84 is bendable at the central portion thereof as shownin FIG. 10, and regularly urged to be kept it horizontally by means of aspring 84 a disposed at a central portion of the coupling arm 84. Sincethe coupling arm 84 is bendable at the central portion thereof in thismanner, even if one's finger is accidentally caught between the fore toybody 81 and the rear toy body 82 as the toy body 80 is turning into abent state, one's finger can be easily pulled out. Further, a pair ofprojected portions 84 b and 84 c are formed at the lower side of thecoupling arm 84 and are contacted with the projected portion 31 a of thefore undercarriage 30 and with the projected portion 51 a of the foreundercarriage 50, respectively. This makes it possible to regulate therange of parallel movement of the fore toy body 81 and of the rear toybody 82.

The running toy according to this embodiment is steered under thecontrol of a radio controller 90. The details of the radio controller 90will be explained with reference to FIG. 12 as follows. FIG. 12 is ablock diagram of an electric circuit including a receiver 91. The radiocontroller 90 is constituted by a transmitter and the receiver 91. Thereceiver 91 is provided with a receiving antenna 91 a, and signalstransmitted from the receiver 91 are fed to a control IC 92. The outputterminal for steering 92 a of the control IC 92 is connected via adriving amplifier 93 with the motor of the steering device 25. Theoutput terminal for driving 92 b of the control IC 92 is connected via adriving amplifier 94 with the motor of the rear wheel driving device 50.Further, the output terminal for toy body bending 92 c of the control IC92 is connected via a latch driving circuit 95 and a driving amplifier96 with the motor of the toy body bending means 35.

The latch driving circuit 95 is designed to be controlled through theopening or closing of the switch 67 of the switching mechanism 65 whichis interlocked with the arm 63 to be driven by the aforementioned motor36 of the toy body bending means 35. The reference numeral 97 denotes abattery for feeding electric power to each components of the electriccircuit. The radio controller 90 is controlled by a steering signal fromthe transmitter (not shown).

Next, the operation of the running toy of this embodiment which isconstructed as described above will be explained. When the steeringoperation of running toy is performed through a transmitter, a steeringsignal is received by the receiving antenna 91 a of the receiver 91 andthen, fed via the output terminal for steering 92 a of the control IC 92to the driving amplifier 93, which causes the motor of the steeringdevice 25 to rotate to move the tie rods 26 right and left, thussteering the front wheels 24. When the driving operation of running toyis performed through a transmitter, a driving signal is received by thereceiving antenna 91 a of the receiver 91 and then, fed via the outputterminal for driving 92 b of the control IC 92 to the driving amplifier94, thus causing the motor 55 of the rear wheel driving device 54 torotate to move the running toy 10 forward and backward.

Further, when the toy body bending operation of running toy is performedthrough a transmitter, a toy body bending signal is received by thereceiving antenna 91 a of the receiver 91 and then, fed via the outputterminal for toy body bending 92 c of the control IC 92 and the latchdriving circuit 95 to the driving amplifier 96, thus causing the motor36 of the toy body bending means 35 to rotate. When the motor is rotatedforward for example, the rotation is transmitted via the first wheel 37,the second wheel 38, the third wheel 39, the fourth wheel 41, the fifthwheel 42 and the sixth wheel 43 to the driving wheel 45, therebyultimately causing the driving wheel 45 to rotate forward. As a result,by means of the hexagonal shaft of the driving shaft 44, the rearundercarriage 50 rotates clockwise relative to the fore undercarriage 30to bent the undercarriage 15.

When the motor 36 is rotated, the driving shaft 44 rotates, and, inconformity with this rotation of the driving shaft 44, the driving sidearm holder 61 rotates. As a result, the arm 63 rocking about thecoupling shaft 62 a of the driven side arm holder 62 and the frontwheel-supporting undercarriage 20 rotates clockwise relative to the foreundercarriage 30. This adjusts the posture of the front wheel-supportingundercarriage 20 to make it parallel with respect to the surface of roadand at the same time, the front bumper 27 is kept parallel with respectto the surface of road. When the arm 63 is rotated, the switch member 66is moved up to a predetermined level, at which moment the switch 67 isactuated to stop the rotation of motor 36 via the latch driving circuit95. Since the front wheel-supporting undercarriage 20 is kept parallelwith respect to the surface of road, the steering device 25 is preventedfrom being inclined, thereby securing a continued stable steeringoperation.

When the undercarriage 15 is bent, the fore toy body 81 which is coupledwith the fore undercarriage 30 by means of locking screw 85 and the reartoy body 82 which is coupled with the rear undercarriage 50 by means oflocking screw 86 approach to each other while maintaining them parallelby means of the coupling arm 84. When the switch 67 is actuated whilecontacting the rear end face of the fore toy body 81 with the fore endface of the rear toy body 82, the bending operation of the undercarriage15 is stopped. On the other hand, the roof portion 83 is rotatedclockwise about the supporting shaft 83 a by the effect of spring 83 b,which allows the roof portion 83 to be reached to an upper place betweenthe fore toy body 81 and the rear toy body 82. As a result, as shown inFIGS. 1(b) and 3, the driving toy is turned into the high-floor pick-upstyle 10B which is suited for performing a low speed driving on a roadof roughened surface such as off-road.

When stretching operation of the undercarriage 15 is performed through atransmitter, the motor 36 of the toy body bending means 35 is rotatedreversely by the control IC 92, the latch driving circuit 95 and thedriving circuit 96 in the same manner as described above to rotate thedriving shaft 44 counterclockwise. As a result, the undercarriage 15that has been in a bent state is stretched as the rear undercarriage 50is rotated counterclockwise relative to the fore undercarriage 30. Atthis moment, the arm 61 engaged with the driving shaft 44 isconcurrently rotated counterclockwise, and the arm 63 rocks relative tothe driven side arm holder 62, leading the front wheel-supportingundercarriage 20 to be kept parallel with respect to the surface ofroad. Due to this rocking of the arm 63, the switch member 66 is moveddownward to actuate the switch 67, thus suspending the rotation of themotor 36.

In the operation of stretching the undercarriage 15, the fore toy body81 which is coupled by means of a locking screw 85 with the foreundercarriage 30 and the rear toy body 82 which is coupled by means of alocking screw 86 with the rear undercarriage 50 are moved away from eachother while keeping them parallel, and this stretching movement isfinally stopped with the rear end face of the fore toy body 81 beingspaced apart from the fore end face of the rear toy body 82. On theother hand, the roof portion 83 is rotated counterclockwise about thesupporting shaft 83 a in resistance to the urging force of the spring 83b, which permits the roof portion 83 to be reached to the position toclose the space between the fore undercarriage 30 and the rearundercarriage 50. As a result, as shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 2, the runningtoy is turned into the low-floor buggy style 10A which is suited forperforming a high speed driving on a road of smooth surface such aspaved road with the height of toy being lowered.

Next, the operation of the buffering device 70 will be explained. Whenthe fore wheel-supporting undercarriage 20 is rotated relative to thefore undercarriage 30 due to a shock on the front bumper 27 during therunning operation of the running toy 10, the stationary plate 72 rotatestogether with the stationary shaft 20 a and the hexagonal shaft 20 b asshown in FIG. 9(d) and hence the protrusion 74 of the stationary plate72 rotates by an angle θ relative to the protrusion 64 of the drivenside arm holder 62, which expands the buffering spring 75 to alleviatethe aforementioned shock. As a result, the protrusion 64 of the armholder 62 is prevented from being rotated, and hence the aforementionedshock would not be transmitted to the arm 63 linked to the arm holder62, thus eliminating the possibility that the arm 63 may be damaged.

While the running toy is constructed in the foregoing embodiment suchthat only the rear wheels are driven, it is of course possible to employa four-wheel driving system wherein the front wheels are also driven.Whereas the front wheels are sustained by the front wheel-supportingundercarriage in the aforementioned embodiment, the front wheels may bedirectly sustained together with the steering device by the foreundercarriage. Further, although the running toy according to thisembodiment is constructed to steer under the control of a radiocontroller, the running toy may be constructed to steer by means of aknown wire remote controller.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As explained above, according to the running toy of the presentinvention, pivotally coupling of the fore undercarriage and the rearundercarriage with each other by way of toy body bending means allowsthe provision of two toy styles, i.e. a stretched state and a bentstate, thereby making it possible to perform a variety of interestingdriving.

Furthermore, support of the front wheels by a front wheel-supportingundercarriage which is pivotally supported by the fore undercarriage,and interposition of the posture adjusting means between the foreundercarriage and the front wheel-supporting undercarriage makes itpossible to keep constant the space between the front bumper and thesurface of road, and also to secure a stable steering. The arm of theposture adjusting means contributes to the protection from any shockthanks to the provision of the buffering device. This running toy can beeasily steered under the control of a radio controller.

What is claimed is:
 1. A running toy comprising: a rear-end portion of afore undercarriage with front wheels pivotally coupled through anundercarriage bending means for bending a joint portion between thefore-undercarriage and a rear undercarriage with a fore-end portion ofthe rear undercarriage with rear wheels; a fore toy body attached tosaid fore undercarriage and a rear toy body attached to said rearundercarriage, wherein said fore toy body and rear toy body aresustained by sustaining means for maintaining the fore toy body and therear toy body such that these toy bodies move parallel toward or awayfrom each other; and a rear-wheel driving means for driving at leasteither said front wheels or said rear wheels.
 2. The running toyaccording to claim 1, wherein said front wheels are supported by a frontwheel-supporting undercarriage which is pivotally supported by the foreundercarriage, and a posture adjusting means for adjusting at least theposture of the front wheel-supporting undercarriage is interposedbetween the fore undercarriage and the front wheel-supportingundercarriage.
 3. The running toy according to claim 2, wherein saidposture adjusting means comprises an arm holder interlocked with theundercarriage bending means, an arm holder fixed to the frontwheel-supporting undercarriage, and an arm linking these two arm holdersto each other, and is provided with a buffering device.
 4. The runningtoy according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said running toy issteered under the control of a radio controller.